Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure equitable access to pharmacies across geographic areas, in the context of pharmacy closures.

Pharmacies play a vital role in our healthcare system, and the Government recognises the integral role they play within our communities, as an easily accessible ‘front door’ to the National Health Service, staffed by highly trained and skilled healthcare professionals.

Community pharmacies are private businesses that provide NHS funded services. Most pharmacies are not directly commissioned or contracted by the NHS, instead contractors apply to gain entry to the NHS pharmaceutical list, and if an application is approved, a pharmacy can open and start providing services.

Local authorities are required to undertake a pharmaceutical needs assessment (PNA) every three years to assess whether their population is adequately served by local pharmacies, and must keep these assessments under review. Integrated care boards (ICBs) give regard to the PNAs when reviewing applications from the new contractors. Contractors can also apply to open a new pharmacy to offer benefits to patients that were not foreseen by the PNA. If there is a need for a new local pharmacy to open and no contractors apply to open a pharmacy and fill the gap, ICBs can commission a new pharmacy to open outside of the market entry processes, and fund the contract from the ICBs’ budgets.

The Pharmacy Access Scheme helps protect access to pharmacies in areas where there are fewer pharmacies and higher health needs, so that no area is left without access to local, physical NHS pharmaceutical services.

In general, despite a reduction in the number of pharmacies in recent years, patient access to pharmacies remains good and continues to be better in the most deprived areas when compared with the least deprived.

We have now concluded the consultation on funding for 2024/25 and 2025/26, and have agreed with Community Pharmacy England to increase the community pharmacy contractual framework to £3.073 billion. This deal represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the NHS, over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26. This shows a commitment to rebuilding the sector.